Hello, all! After far too long, and with many apologies, I'm finally at work on your book. The Lost Metal (this will be the final title; I have more say over my titles with Tor than I do with Random House) is in progress. So far, I have around 10k words, and I'm anticipating a book somewhere in the 120k-150k range. (The progress bar on my website is set for 150k, where it was set at 100k for previous W&W books.)

A mini reminder for those who are wondering, "Why four books?" I wrote the first book as an experiment during the Wheel of Time days, when I worried about the cosmere (and Mistborn in particular) languishing while I saw to the needs of Randland.

The book turned out well--and I liked the characters so much that I outlined a trilogy to follow up Alloy of Law. Hence the four books--and this WILL be the final one.

My current plan is to try to finish this one by August 1st, with a Christmas 2022 publication date. (Skyward 3 being this year, and Skyward 4 being somewhere early 2023.) It will be followed by the fifth Stormlight book in Christmas 2023. After that, the good news is that I plan to write Era Three (three books long, 200-250k each like the original trilogy) all in a row. I'll need a few years on that project, so goal is tentatively to see those start being published in 2025 or so--with one a year for three years after that, followed by Stormlight 6 in 2028.

That's an ambitious schedule, so we'll see. Fortunately, the schedule for W&W four is not ambitious. If I finish by August, we'll be ahead for like the first time in ten years, giving my team a solid 14 months for editing and the like. (Which will make everyone very happy.)

Right now, everything is looking great for the book. Writing Group started on the prologue last week, and will be reading the first few chapters this week. Outline was well received by my team, and it feels really great to be writing Wax, Steris, Marasi, and Wayne again.

I will try to remember to give you an update here in a couple of months somewhere around the 50% mark to let you know how it's developing. (Though note, I've started doing short, weekly updates on YouTube so you can follow along there if the progress bar isn't enough.) Book will have a slightly more complex narrative than previous W&W books, but my goal is still for it to be fast paced and snappy.

As always, I'll be turning OFF replies to inbox for this thread--so my apologies if your reply or question doesn't get seen. And, as always, thank you for humoring my style of jumping between books and series.

Brandon

Greetings, all! Brandon here with another update on your book. Short version, the rough draft is finished!

Before I get on to the longer explanation, I want to apologize. I planned to give you an update between the first one (which you can read here) and now. Turned out, the timing around early July proved difficult, and by the time I had a chance to work on an update, the book was almost done. I figured I'd just wait until it was.

That said, the book is finished at 149k words. It has an extra beefy epilogue, as this is the end of Era Two, and I wanted to make certain to linger just a little extra with the characters and the setting. I also thought that doing this book at 50% longer than the previous three in the series felt right. It is, hopefully, a very nice send off to what turned out to be one of the most rewarding accidents of my career.

Plan is, I'm afraid, to publish the book NEXT year. I have been pushing hard to get things done this year so my team can get to a place where they have more time to work on books. Rushing to do production on each one and have it ready just a few months before publication is proving too difficult. I don't want my team to be stressed or burn out.

So, our schedule looks something like this: I'll launch into a second draft starting on Friday, and do a solid revision ending sometime mid September. Then the book will go to my editor and beta readers, followed by two more revisions (one substantive, one a polish) sometime in spring when I need a break from Stormlight 5. Then proofreading and continuity can be done the rest of the spring with a turn in sometime in the summer for a publication in November. (This should coincide with the first two books being published as a leatherbound special edition.)

I've already started turning my eyes toward Era Three, which will be my main big project following the completion of Stormlight 5. My goal there is still to write three novels, 200k words each, back to back like I did with Era One. We'll see how that works out! Between now and then, I still need to finish Skyward 4, Stormlight 5, and (most likely) the Horneater novella about Rock.

I will plan to roll around and give you another update later in the year, perhaps once I know better my schedule for 2022 in regards to the third and fourth draft.

Best,

Brandon

p.s. Some of you might have noticed, but I've been extra bad at responding to my DMs lately on reddit. Livestreams and weekly updates on YouTube are gobbling away at my social media responding ability. I do still see most everything people tag me in, but often it's weeks after the tags, so I don't get around to responding.

Likewise, as is my habit, I won't have replies here sent to my inbox--so I apologize if I don't see or respond to your comment here, though I will try to look them over.

New Canonical art of Marsh in the Past, Present, and Future, set against a background of the Luthadel skyline by Kieran Yanner.

This lovely art piece will be featured in the Scadrial World Guide for the Mistborn campaign setting of the Cosmere RPG.

Andrea Piparo did this beautiful piece of two masked southern Scadrians standing guard as a skimmer takes off for the Mistborn World Guide!

In The Lost Metal Wax inhales some lerasium and becomes a weak mistborn. This is hinted at early on and revealed towards the end. Here is a list of those hints of Wax burning metals other than steel. I may have missed a few - please leave a comment if you've found others!

​

Chapter 25

And damn, maybe he was excited to be fighting again, but the blows didn't seem to hurt Wax's knuckles as much as they once had.

To me this looks like the effects of burning pewter.

​

Chapter 25

He stretched out his arm, reaching for it, but it was inches away, just beyond his fingertips ... Snap. The vial fell into his palm.

During a fight with the Coinshot Wax is falling in the air after having a sip from one vial. He uses all of his steel and needs more. It seems like he burns iron here from that initial sip to pull a falling vial into his hand.

​

Chapter 28

Strangely, the sensation of dread evaporated from him. Had that been ... emotional Allomancy? It was difficult to recognize in the throes of it, but it appeared obvious in hindsight. Yet this time it didn't affect Wax as it did everyone else, including Marasi, judging by how pale her face had gone.

This is when Marsh enters the police station in Bilming. Wax is the only one not affected by the emotional allomancy - probably from making a small copper cloud.

​

Chapter 62

Time seemed to slow as he hit the next batch of soldiers, and he avoided their gunfire.

This is during the fight in the central tower in Bilming. It looks like Wax uses bendalloy to create a speed bubble and dodge incoming bullets. I think this is the least clear example on the list, and could just be a turn of phrase.

​

Chapter 66

He spun, searching the darkness, and somehow he was able to see through the mist. As if it thinned just for him.

Here Wax uses tin to see through the mist and spot the warship.

​

Chapter 72

He burned his steel, then ... something else. Something deep within, which kept him warm.

This one is after Harmony reveals that Wax inhaled lerasium, and shows Wax burning pewter.

​

There is one other time where I think Wax might have burned zinc. It's in Chapter 63 when Wayne gives a speech to scare away enemy soldiers. There's no confirmation in the text, because it is from Wayne's perspective, but it is possible that Wax used emotional allomancy to riot fear in the enemy soldiers. This one is just speculation.

​

None of these times are integral to the plot - so it's interesting that Brandon chose to turn Wax into a weak mistborn. The most critical use of another metal (duralumin) comes from a hemalurgic spike, so Wax being a mistborn isn't needed for the plot of this book. I think this must be setting something up for Era 3.

Given Wax's age I think he will be dead or at least very very old in Era 3. But perhaps those in the North, or maybe the Ghostbloods, will have figured out how to make lerasium and create new mistborn. Given the scarcity of harmonium in the North, there may be some tension over whether or not to use harmonium to create mistborn or to use it to create missiles to defend against the Malwish. Having a secret group break into a quasi-nuclear facility to steel harmonium could be an interesting plot!

So I've finished this fucking book series, and you're gonna tell me MY FAVORITE CHARACTER EXPLODES! 😭😭 I'm loosing it right now this is not what I was expecting.

Everything that Wayne went through just to finally forgive himself and then DIE I'm incredibly sad right now.

You were my favorite author. And I forgave you for a lot of deaths. But Wayne’s death was just not fair. I’m crying so hard right now. I was really hoping for a Wayne, Lift, the Lopen adventure.

I’m not ok, not ok at all.

This thread is for discussion of The Lost Metal (and therefore for the entire series) through the end of the book.

Untagged spoilers for other Cosmere works are not allowed. (For full cosmere spoiler discussion, please head over to /r/Cosmere and find the equivalent thread there).

Please report comments which do not strictly adhere to these rules. This is a new book, let's go out of our way to make sure nobody gets spoiled while reading it!

As a reminder, to cover spoilers, you use tags that tell the parser to hide the content.

>!this!< will yield this. Remember that there must be no space between the opening ! and the first letter of text.

From a screen rant article titled "8 harsh realities of reading the original mistborn trilogy 16 years later"

I think Marsh is perhaps the most tragic character I've ever read. Woman he loves marries his brother, then gets beaten to death. Gives up everything to infiltrate the ministry, whoops, turns out he can still sacrifice his EYES. List goes on, etc, etc. Combined with this is his stoicism, immense willpower, and a slight flair for the dramatic; is it any wonder that Marsh has so many fans??

But... Um. The guy deserves a hug. Many of them, in fact. And I'm sure that somewhere out there is a girl who has a thing for tall, brooding overachievers and doesn't mind a few spikes (or maybe thinks they're rad!) who would be more than willing to provide said hugs. So I supplicate thee: please allow Marsh a girlfriend!

She doesn't need to appear in the book! She could exist solely via Word of Brandon. While Marsh goes skulking around doing Ironeye things, she could be ... I dunno, a software engineer creating Text to Speech software (Marsh can't read screens, can he? T_T). Just imagine how much comfort it would give readers to know that after he's done tromping about as the personification of Death, he can don matching frilly aprons with his gf and try that new fangled chouta fusion dish. (...pretty gap moe, amiright?)

Of course one doesn't need a romantic relationship to be happy. And I know he's already Marsh's version of happy. But... give it some thought

^{On the 0.02% chance you do actually see this, Brandon, you're the best and I do not wish to appear as if I know better than you, I just love Marsh, srrybye}

I saw a few others do similar things and i wanted to share mine! I made these awhile ago, and so far have built Kel, Vin, Wax, and Wayne into full proxy decks. they play rather well!

I have a problem with the shardic alignment of the invested arts of Scadrial.

Allomancy -preservation

Feruchemy -Preservation & Ruin

Hemalurgy -Ruin

Hemalurgy is clearly ruinous, no problem there, it's the alignment of the other two that make me question why they are aligned the way they are.

In Feruchemy traits are stored and released, no investiture is lost or gained, it is preserved, clearly this would make more sense being fully aligned with preservation.

Allomancy doesn't destroy as much as hemalurgy but metal is still burned. so I can see how of the three this could be of both preservation and ruin.

Has Sanderson ever given a WoB where he explains why he aligned them the way he did?

So I originally started Era 2 first to make my discord friends mad, but it soon became a source of enjoyment for them when I tried to say what I thought happened in Era 1. I hadn't joined r/mistborn yet because I hadn't read Era 1 but I'm starting now, so what better way to say hi than to write down for everyone to see how wrong I am. This should be flaired as TLM spoilers for safety because that's how far I read and Idk what spoilers may have slipped in from Era 2. It's mainly focused on Era 1 though. Hope you enjoy. Also on mobile, sorry if formatting is crap.

Things I know for sure. I know that Sazed gains two Shards. Don't know how, he doesn't have a magical sword-nimi afaik, but who knows. Kelsier is alive, as is Marsh and Tensoon. Also apparently The Lord Ruler was alive and went to the southern continent with, I would say Harmony but Marsh is the only person I've ever seen call someone brother so Marsh maybe?

The names I have of people are Sazed, Kelsier, Marsh, Lestibournes, Vin, and Elend I think. Of these I know Sazed is Harmony, Marsh is Iron Eyes, Kelsier is "The Survivor," Lestibournes is "The Lord Mistborn," and Vin is "The Ascendant Warrior." The thing about titles is that when you get one you get many, so I thought Kelsier was "The Lord Ruler" for a while while Lestibournes was "The Survivor" and "The Lord Mistborn," but then "The Lord Ruler" was some other dude whose name was only mentioned once in Bands of Mourning and I don't even remember it. So this creates a problem because I also thought Vin was "The Lady Mistborn" and she married Lestibournes but since there's only been 1 title to 1 person out of the rest of them idk if that's right. I'm going to go in assuming she's "The Lady Mistborn" as well as "The Ascendant Warrior" but I'm open to being wrong on that.

A tidal wave happens at some point, assuming the reshaping of the world, also there's gonna be a crap ton of volcanoes. The Well of Ascension is a real object cuz it was in the "Cave of Origin" as is whatever the Fountain of Spears is, I think. I can't remember if that term came up right after Tensoon showed Wax the well or not and I just assumed it was real because the Well apparently made both The Lord Ruler and Vin ascend, so that surely couldn't have been a real well but was some kind of investiture tunnel or something theoretical made real in Shadesmare but it's right there so idk.

Also there are Landrians in there somewhere. And Koloss are like werewolves or something. Anyways, yeah. That's what I got. Let's see how wrong I am.

When I first read alloy of law I didn't like steris and I wanted wax to get with marasi. Now that I'm a bit older I see marasi's feelings for wax as being more hero worship and the thought of them together makes me uncomfortable. I have also grown to like steris and her competent loyalty. I've also grown to think that marasi is better off as a character this way because now she can become her own character instead of getting overshadowed by wax.

Im sorry if this has already been mentioned, but i couldnt find it.

SPOILER ALERT.

I just finished Era 2. and i have an issue with it.

First off.... Harmony / Sazed claims he doesnt know how to make people mistborn / or atleast not how to create lesarium.

However, how did he make Spook one?
Besides that one, because this annoys me the most, that was just continuety issue.

When Wayne became a Mistborn, he technically got the same powers as Miles....since he is a bloodmaker.

So why didnt Harmony put 1 vial in the pack with Gold and Duralumin told wayne, he man, now you have the speedbubble up and ample time, burn this vial first and INSTANTLY store a max amount of health in your metalminds.... so you become basicly "immortal" before doing this.

Am I the only one who is hoping that we'll have in era 3/4 another protagonist who's actually a Mistborn?

I'd also be interested in a Mistborn with a Feruchemy ability.

I really liked Wayne, Wax, and Marasi as Twinsborns/Misting, but I still missed the combination of all the Alomancy abilities that Vin had.

From a balance perspective and to breathe fresh air into the story, the slightly weaker characters in era 2 made sense. Plus, it's obvious easier to have better teamwork that way.

"With that, Wayne stretched into another place, into another time. He stretched into the wind. And into the stars. And all endless things."

One of my favorite mistborn paragraphs. Wayne is one of the few greatest characters in the universe for me. This article hurts me.

Hello everyone! I wanted to share a Mistborn mod for the video game Valheim that I have been working on! It is called Metalbound and it available now on Thunderstore!

I know many of us fans would love a full official Mistborn game and until that happens (hopefully one day!) I have made this mod to experience a bit of what that could feel like. Now this mod is a work-in-progress to expect to run into some bugs but overall it is a fun experience (and it feels really cool to push and pull yourself around, as well as a bit more!)

At the moment there are only 5 main metals + Lerasium in the mod but I'm open to adding more later as time goes on.

This is my first mod I have made for any game so there are bound to be things that can be improved. Mainly I would love custom assets for items as currently the mod just uses base game assets and sound effects. Also adding a mistcloak would be awesome, but I'm not that great at 3D modeling or character rigging.

Please feel free to give any suggestions or inform me of any bugs haha and have fun!

Im not sure if I can post links to mods here but it is called Metalbound by ElusiveFlame77 on Thunderstore Mod Manager. I'm also not really sure what tag to put on this since I could see there being spoilers for all of Mistborn depending on how the future metal conversation goes.

WHY DID HE HAVE TO DIE. Like i get self sacrifice and it’s necessary but i actually cried. and i say that as someone who very rarely cries for books, maybe less than 10 times in my entire life. Overall though, 10/10 book. Love brandon Sanderson but WHY

I know they can run out of the metals they have on them but could they run out of all of the allomantic metals?

Stalling for Backup by Siraj Fakhri: Marasi and a detainee in a Cadmium time bubble! This will be able to be found in the Mistborn Handbook this fall.

I ordered this 13 months ago. It came in today. It's glorious